Booking blood pressures and plasma nitrite in Jamaican women with pre-eclampsia

Abstract

SummaryOur objective was to assess the levels of nitric oxide (NO) in pre-eclampsia and to investigate its effect on blood pressure (BP) in the Jamaican population. A total of 103 participants (50 pre-eclampsia, 53 controls) were recruited from the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). Blood samples were collected in the fasting state and trimester BP measurements were obtained from their records. A commercially available kit supplied by Oxford Biomedical Research Inc. (MI, USA) was used to measure plasma levels of NO. All measures of booking BP were significantly higher in women who later developed pre-eclampsia compared with those whose pregnancies remained normotensive (p ≤ 0.004). Mean plasma nitrite (NO) levels in the cases was 21.9 ± 5.4 µmol/L (n = 48), significantly higher than that of the controls, 19.2 ± 5.7 µmol/L (n = 52) p = 0.015. NO levels were not directly associated with the level of BP, p > 0.05. We concluded that in the Jamaican population, booking BP measurements may be predictors of pre-eclampsia and NO production increases in pre-eclampsia but is not related to the height of the BP.